Another trip to the Poor Farm

An online journal about visual art, the urban landscape and design. Mary Louise Schumacher, the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic, leads the discussion and a community of writers contribute to the dialogue.

I made another trip to the Poor Farm, a contemporary art space in the most unexpected of contexts, over the weekend. This large institutional building in Manawa, Wisconsin, once populated by the region's destitute, is now home to the international avant-garde thanks to artists and Chicago gallerists Michelle Grabner and Brad Killam.

A new set of annual installations were opened over the weekend, several of them in honor of the 77th birthday of August art historian Moira Roth, one of my new favorite people (shown talking, right). The best part of the weekend, for me, was sitting out on bright orange benches in the grass and sipping Veuve Cliquot with Moira and the friends who accompanied me, including Marilu Knode, executive director of Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, artist and photographer Kevin Miyazaki, poet John Koethe, arts advocate Diane Bacha and my significant other, designer Ken Hanson.

The second best part -- the poem written by art historian Linda Nochlin to mark the occasion.

I also had the wonderful privilege of meeting Sheldon Otto, who grew up in the mammoth house and happened be in the area for a class reunion. His parents bought the property from Waupaca County many decades ago and turned it into an "old folks home," he said. He had lots of stories to tell.

I am off this week and will be doing some additional reporting on and thinking about the Poor Farm. So there's more to come, but I wanted to share a few images to pique your interest.

Some of the Poor Farm's residents were buried in a graveyard just a short hike through some corn fields out back.

The Poor Farm has had many former lives. It's been a retirement home, a flop house and a bed and breakfast. It has 6,000 feet of exhibition space and an entire wing with small dorm-sized quarters for artists, curators and writers, some of whom visit the Poor Farm for short or extended residencies.

About Mary Louise Schumacher

Mary Louise Schumacher is the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic. She writes about culture, design, the urban landscape and Milwaukee's creative community. Art City is her award-winning cultural page and a community of more than 20 contributing writers and artists. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

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Keep up with the art scene and trends in urban design with art and architecture critic Mary Louise Schumacher. Every week, you'll get the latest reviews, musings on architecture and her picks for what to do on the weekends.